Twinkling Blue Eyes

I'd like to make the official announcement that Little Miss Layla has...

BLUE EYES!!!
Just like her mommy!

Partying Down

On our days off Layla and I like to go out and adventure. I pack her up in the Moby wrap so my arms are free and I can get a root beer flavored steamed soy milk at the coffee shop on the corner or rifle through rack of clothes at the used kids clothing store down in the neighborhood square. Fortunately my Studly Hubby is very tolerant of all my adventurous purchases but the last time he was home and we were getting ready to go he insisted on taking some pictures.


Layla usually LOVES the Moby and either falls asleep (when she's facing me) or happily checks out what's happening (when she's facing out). She especially likes going to parties where people oggle at her and tell her how pretty she is, and walking down the main street at night and looking at all the bright lights and lit up store fronts.

Speaking of partying down, have any of you heard of the Starz TV show Party Down? We have been watching it on Netflix streaming video, and it's pretty good!!

New Developments

We have such a smart little girl!! These days she has been working VERY hard on hand-eye coordination, in particular getting her fist in her mouth. She has finally had some success, and is now moving on to bigger goals: playing with TOYS! Here she is with one of her favorite toys, a rattling mirror-toy that Microsoft sent in their 'welcome baby' package.


She has a jungle gym with toys hanging down and she LOVES to work on hitting the toys and making them rattle. The movie below is a recent one of her playing with the toys on her jungle gym.



And this leads to the next thing: PEEKABOO!! She is just starting to get how fun it can be to play with a blanket. This is within the last week and we are enjoying it just as much as her.



She's also smiling ALL THE TIME now, especially when her Daddy makes faces at her, which is constant.

Zoom!

Life is zooming by again, now that I'm back at work. It's really a good life though, I work all day at a job I like, then come home to hang out with my li'l girl with my Studly Hubby who is just as enamored by her as I am (so I don't feel dumb when I say "oh my God, did you SEE that?? She is SO CUTE!!").

The thing that's keeping me from blogging is that we still don't have full-time daycare - we have 3 days a week, which is pretty good, but we both need to be working 5 and we are seriously juggling all weekend to make up for the weekdays we stay home. On my day off (Monday), I have a blast - I go to the gym in the morning (gym daycare is the best! and so is the hot tub), then Layla and I go adventuring. Sometimes we drive across town to have lunch with the Study Hubby and his coworkers, sometimes we nap, get the housework done, go for a walk, stop by the coffee shop on the corner, or whatever. It's nice! Too bad I don't have the kind of job I can do 4 days per week on a permanent basis.

The other thing that's keeping me from blogging is my aggressive drive to get enough sleep. Fortunately Layla is generally a GREAT sleeper, she goes to bed around 8:30 pm, wakes up once around 4 or 5 am, then sleeps again until 7 or 8 am. But every once in a while (as in, once or twice a week), she doesn't follow that at all - and I don't get very much sleep. So I tend to go to bed the second she does just in case. Which means, no time for blogging. So you should all feel very special.

All dressed up!

One of the fun things about being the parent of a newborn is that you have free reign over their attire. Here is Layla all dressed up for no reason at all except to take some cute pictures...

The headband came from Etsy, thanks to a tip from Mandy in Minneapoland. Thanks Mandy!

PEPS

We joined a parent-support group here in Seattle called PEPS. I don't know what it stands for but what it is is 10 couples with babies born within two months of ours getting together every week for 3 months to share highs and lows and tricks and treats. We don't have any family in town so really wanted to do this from the moment we heard about it.

Every week each person has a chance to share that week's high point and low point (ex. I got to go shopping, that was a high, but she pooped all over the stroller while we were out, so that was a low). I have started thinking about everything that happens during the week as a high or a low. Usually they are connected.

Last week's highs and lows...

Low: Layla got a cold! She was snuffly and miserable.
High: Layla was SO CUTE when she had a cold, and CUDDLY! We got lots of cuddles and I think it helped her have a quick recovery.

Low: DAYCARE... Blah! I had to put off working another week because we still didn't have daycare.
High: Our new daycare started today, and it's going great! They are very good with Layla and although it really wore her out (she is only going for half-days this week) she seems to like it a lot.

Low: WORK! It's so hard! And I have to jump right in and that's hard too! And I miss the girl! And I'm tired!! And it's hard to work when you're tired!!
High: WORK! It's so much fun! I missed it so much!! I missed everyone and everything and really love being back and thinking about science again.

Low: We have no backup daycare, so we are each going to be stuck at home for a day during the week... so that means lots of working on the weekends, yech.
High: We've discovered babysitting at the GYM! So yesterday, on my day at home, Layla and I went to the gym and had a blast. Then we went out to eat with the Studly Hubby-Daddy, and then went to the chiropractor in the afternoon. It was an awesome day!

FIRST MOTHER'S DAY!!

On Sunday I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a mom. Now I have a whole new appreciation for this holiday!
The Studly Hubby treated me right, he let me sleep in (until 9!), he let me decide the day's activities (hang out outside, shop for baby clothes, shop for fancy fabric, and make a skirt!) and then he made sure it all happened in a stress-free way.
Here is the skirt I worked on. It's not quite finished - I put in a seam wrong and couldn't find my seam-ripper, so it will get finished next weekend. It took about 1/4 as much time as the last skirt I made, and was MUCH less painful. I feel like a competent skirt-maker now. I might even venture on to another project... or maybe just more skirts...
The Studly Hubby has been taking some really awesome pictures too. Here is one of my favorite mommy-daughter pictures:

And YES that IS spit-up on my shoulder... I think having spit-up on my shoulder gives me more street cred as a mommy.

"Sweeter than Apple Pie!"

Layla's Grandpa L made an awesome video compilation of pictures that you can view here. It's great! And set to an awesome song too. Thanks Grandpa L!

Also he FINISHED THE 30-YEAR QUILT! I'll post pictures after we get it when he visits in a few weeks. Can't wait!!!!

Big Smile

We caught it on video!!

The daycare drama

We planned to put Layla in a home daycare until we could get into a regular daycare (which we have been on a wait list for since 6 weeks pregnant). The home daycare needed approval from the city to start Layla, but 2 weeks after we had wanted to start she still hadn't gotten the approval so we started looking for an alternative. We interviewed some nannies, but after a long week we hadn't been able to hire anybody we liked. That was on Monday. On Monday night, the home daycare called to say they had gotten approval and we could start Tuesday. But on Tuesday the assistant couldn't make it, so the plan was to come back Thursday (although I went anyway and had a good morning there). On Tuesday night, we got a VERY unexpected call from one of the daycares in our neighborhood that they had a part-time spot starting in mid-May (when Layla will be 2 months). We were elated and took it immediately. I called the home daycare to rearrange our schedule so they could fill in the rest of the week (which they agreed to) and reconfirm we would start on Thursday. Everything seemed to be working out great.

But the home daycare continued to be a problem. On Thursday the main person at the home daycare was sick, and they called to tell us not to come. On Friday we took Layla and dropped her off, but then got a call 3 hours later to come pick her up because she wasn't taking a nap and they were worried about her. When the Studly Hubby got there to pick her up, he was able to get her to sleep before he even left, and we wondered whether they had really tried very hard. Friday night I called them to find out what had happened and I was told that perhaps this wasn't going to work out - and we agreed; whatever the problem, we hadn't been having much success with this place.

So now we are stuck again, waiting until the other daycare starts and trying to figure out how to balance the part-time daycare we were lucky enough to get with our two full-time jobs. With help from a friend and some flexibility in our jobs we are hoping it will work out. I'm pretty annoyed to be in this situation. Plus now I have a lot of anxiety about our next daycare experience. Hopefully it will be better (I think it will be). It turns out getting childcare in Seattle is as hard as they say it is. Ugh.

Recent Video footage

The movie in the previous post is from the early early days when Layla was SUPER tiny. Nowadays she's a monster. She's over 10 lbs!!

Here is a video of her more advanced fist sucking. She's working on controlling her arms and almost has it down.



Next we discovered she's also learning to punch with her fists. She punched her daddy in the face the other day, punches me in the chest regularly, and is on the road to becoming a champion punch dancer. Unfortunately we're encouraging it.




We also thought we would get a video of Layla first thing in the morning. Like her daddy, she is a little groggy and grumbly but quite entertaining. Watch the video to the very end and make sure you have the sound on.